'Not going back': Kamala Harris voters at Georgia rally say abortion is top issue

CUMMING, Ga. - Ursula Mather, a life-long Democrat from “beet-red” Forsyth County, Georgia, says she will “do anything” to ensure Democrats win in 2024. The 75-year-old hopes Vice President Kamala Harris, the presumptive Democratic nominee , will champion reproductive rights.

“We fought for abortion rights. To have them taken away is just terrible,” Mather says, her voice breaking. “It’s awful what they’re putting women through. I was a nurse for 44 years, so I can feel their pain.”

Mather braved the heavy rain and sweltering humidity to attend a campaign rally for Harris on Sunday.

The headliner at the rally was Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear, whom Harris' team is vetting , among others, as a nominee for vice president. Beshear made access to reproductive rights a cornerstone of his reelection campaign last year.

For Mather, the partnership between Harris and Beshear – both strong advocates for abortion access – makes sense.

‘I want my reproductive rights back’

Jennifer Ambler, a Democratic candidate for the Georgia House of Representatives, was in the crowd at the rally. She calls abortion her top issue for the 2024 election.

“I want my reproductive rights back. That’s the bottom line,” said Ambler, 41.

Ambler told USA TODAY that abortion access was among the issues that motivated her to run for office.

After the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in 2022, Georgia instituted a strict ban on most abortions after six weeks – before most people learn they’re pregnant.

“I was so angry when the six-week ban passed. I think a lot of voters were shocked," said Ambler, who bills herself online as a former tax preparer and political comedian. "But now they have a choice – are they going to vote for someone who is going to restore reproductive rights or take them away?”

Rape survivor turned advocate

Twenty-one states have restricted or banned abortion since the fall of Roe v. Wade, according to a tracker from the Guttmacher Institute, a national organization that supports reproductive rights. For Hadley Duvall, the bans are deeply personal.

The 22-year-old abortion rights advocate from Kentucky now works as a surrogate for the Harris campaign. She introduced Beshear on stage at Sunday's rally and had previously campaigned on his behalf during his 2023 re-election bid.

But 10 years ago, Duvall told the crowd, she was a young girl in her bathroom, “holding a pregnancy test and feeling deeply afraid.” After enduring seven years of sexual abuse at the hands of her stepfather, she became pregnant as a result of the continuing assaults at the age of 12. Her stepfather would later be convicted for the ongoing assault, the Washington Post wrote.

At the time, Duvall had a choice about seeking an abortion. Kentucky’s ban – which has no exceptions for rape or incest – did not go into effect until 2022.

“The first thing I remember hearing was, ‘You have options.’ I was too young to really understand what was happening to me,” Duvall told USA TODAY. “But hearing that there were options was the only thing I could hold onto. But now, women and girls don’t even have that to hold onto.”

It’s that exact sentiment that has motivated some Georgia women to run for office.

Randye Dugan , a public school teacher in Georgia, is the Democratic nominee for state representative for District 24. Though Dugan has no prior experience in politics, she was motivated to enter the race because of her six-year-old daughter.

“I decided to run to save her rights,” Dugan says. “I couldn’t stand by any longer and let the men in power take away her rights, especially with Georgia’s six-week abortion ban. You have to stand up. You can’t complain anymore. You have to take action.”

Melissa Cruz is an elections reporting fellow who focuses on voter access issues for the USA TODAY Network. You can reach her at mcruz@gannett.com or on X, formerly Twitter, at @MelissaWrites22.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: 'Not going back': Kamala Harris voters at Georgia rally say abortion is top issue